Karnataka asks PM to rescind Cauvery water decision

Bangalore, Sep 21 (IANS) Two days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked Karnataka to release 9,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu daily, the state government Friday petitioned him to rescind the decision.

“We have filed a petition seeking review of the ruling of the Cauvery River Authority (headed by the prime minister),” Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar told reporters here after meeting opposition Congress and Janata Dal-Secular leaders.

The petition sought keeping in “abeyance” Manmohan Singh’s ruling, announced at the Sep 19 CRA meeting in New Delhi, that Karnataka should release 9,000 cusecs of water daily to Tamil Nadu from Sep 20 to Oct 15.

Shettar said Karnataka wanted the CRA to review the ruling and set it aside. Till then it should be kept in abeyance, he said.

Jayalalithaa had expressed disappointment at the failure of the CRA and said her state would approach the Supreme Court to get justice.

The waters of Caurvery river, which rise in Talacauvery in Karnataka and flows into Bay of Bengal, are to be shared by Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry. Chief ministers of the three states and the union territory are members of the CRA chaired by prime minister.

Shettar said Karnataka’s review petition was handed over personally to the prime minister’s office Friday morning by a state government representative.

He said the prime minister has been urged to send an expert team to Karnataka to assess the situation arising out of drought this year, the worst in 40 years.

Meanwhile former prime minister and JDS president H. D. Deve Gowda opposed the prime minister’s ruling on water release to Tamil Nadu and said a decision should have been taken after an on-the-spot assessment of storage level in reservoirs of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.